


What's In A Name?

by ix3thehpseries



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: i was gonna be productive today and instead i wroke 2k about a nickname basically, idk what happened it got away from me, the prompt was 'bellamy gets jealous of clarke and roan', this is not that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-04 16:58:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10283711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ix3thehpseries/pseuds/ix3thehpseries
Summary: When Bellamy calls Clarke "Princess" it just slips out. He doesn't expect Roan to pick up the nickname and he certainly doesn't expect the weight that settles in his stomach every time he hears Roan using it.Or: Bellamy isn't a fan of Roan calling Clarke "Princess". He's also not of fan of Clarke staying at the lab once they've delivered the hydrazine, but that's a separate issue. Mostly.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was "How about one where Bellamy gets jealous of how much time Clarke is spending with Roan on the trip to deliver the hydrazine." Somehow my first thought was Roan picking up the "princess" nickname and Bellamy getting weird about it and that spiraled into the significance of nicknames and Bellamy also getting weird about Clarke staying at the lab. idk, man this got away from me a bit.

Once it’s decided that Clarke, Bellamy, and Roan will be the ones transporting the hydrazine, they leave as quickly as possible, driving through the night in an effort to draw less attention to themselves.

They stop in the shadow of a cliff when the sun’s high in the sky and Bellamy’s quick to get out of the rover and stretch his arms above his head, letting the tense muscles release. He’d been driving with Roan sitting passenger, Clarke following behind in the cargo truck with the hydrazine. It was the best plan they could come up with - Bellamy and Roan go first, clear a path and look out for any potential threats; Clarke follows, very carefully, with the hydrazine.

She’s out of her vehicle and at his side in a second. “I don’t think we should be stopping.”

Roan is already rolling his eyes as he comes around from the other side of the rover. “We have to stop at some point, Wanheda. This is the best place. The cliff face provides cover for these monstrosities and the closest villages are a few hours away. We should be safe for a few hours.”

Clarke looks at Bellamy, a protest clearly on the tip of her tongue, but he shrugs.

“He’s right,” Bellamy says. The look he gives Clarke shows that he doesn’t like saying it, but it’s true. “It’s a good place to stop. Besides, Princess, the rover’s almost dead. We might as well charge them now so we can drive through the night.”

Clarke doesn’t react to the old nickname, but Roan does, eyebrows quirking upward.

“Princess?” he repeats, “You never mentioned that you were royalty, Wanheda. Though it makes sense.”

Clarke crosses her arms over her chest and stares at Roan. “What makes sense?”

“Everything,” he says. “The demeanor, the way you carry yourself.” He gestures in their direction with a lazy wave. “How he’s always two steps behind you with a weapon, as any good guard should be.”

Bellamy shifts to the side, putting a bit more space between them as he opens his mouth to protest, but Clarke beats him to it. “He’s not my guard and I’m not a princess. It’s just a stupid nickname.”

“So you aren’t royalty?”

“No,” Clarke says, shaking her head and shooting Bellamy a glare. He’s not sure if it’s for moving or for bringing up the nickname. “When we first landed here, we didn’t work well together. Bellamy tried to undermine me by making it seem like I wouldn’t be willing to work for our survival because I wasn’t from a station that housed workers.”

Roan cocks his head and Bellamy gets the feeling that the king can see right through him when he makes a small “hmmm”.

“That also makes sense.”

“ _What_ also makes sense?” Clarke asks. For a second, her tone brings Bellamy back to the early days at the dropship, when he called her “Princess” as a taunt and she always sounded like she was ready for a fight when she talked to him. It leaves him with a weird feeling in his stomach, realizing just how long it’s been since she spoke to him in the voice she’s using now.

Roan’s reply is just as quick as his last one. “That you were privileged at some point – like I said, you’ve got the demeanor and stance. I’m not surprised the two of you started at odds.”

Clarke tenses and asks, “And why is that?”

Bellamy could swear he sees a twinkle in Roan’s eye when he answers, like he’s trying to push Clarke’s buttons.

“You’re kind of a pain, Princess.”

A shot of possessiveness runs through Bellamy when Roan says that, uses his nickname. He catches Clarke glowering at Roan as he makes an excuse about checking the hydrazine, feeling the back of his neck heat up.

It’s ridiculous and he tries to shake off the feeling as he checks that the barrels of hydrazine are still strapped in place. It’s not his nickname. He was never the only one to use it.

When he comes back around, Clarke’s leaning against the bumper of the rover, glaring at Roan.

Roan looks amused and says, “I was trying to tell the princess that it would be a good idea to rest. Why don’t you try? She seems to take my ideas better when they come from you.”

Bellamy pulls a face, but, again, Roan’s right. He doesn’t even have to say anything, because Clarke’s already scowling at him. “I know,” she says. “We should rest. And you’ll take first watch.” She lets out an annoyed huff as she pulls open the back door of the Rover and slams it behind her.

“I’ll take first watch,” Bellamy mutters to Roan. Roan just nods, the same amused look on his face and goes to sit with his back propped against a nearby tree.

They take turns on watch and by the time the sun starts to set they’re driving again. They make it through the night with no issues, but the next day it’s one threat after another. The morning sees them shooting through the rover’s windows at a group of attackers, driving over rough terrain that Bellamy is sure is going to set off an explosion and, at one point, Roan is forced to jump from one vehicle to the other, while they’re moving, to protect the hydrazine.

If he weren’t so exhausted, he would compliment the king’s dedication. As it is, he announces, “The rover’s dead. We’ve got a couple more hours of sunlight and that should be enough of a charge to get us the rest of the way.”

“I’ll take first watch,” Clarke offers. She looks Bellamy over once and nods. “You should rest.”

He doesn’t argue, just climbs into the back of the rover and collapses on one of the benches.

Outside he can hear Clarke insisting that Roan let her look at his arm, where it was sliced by an arrow.

Roan finally agrees and he offers Clarke a quiet, “You did well, for a princess.”

Bellamy can picture her rolling her eyes as she answers. “So did you. For a king.”

When night falls Bellamy says, “I’m driving the hydrazine,” voice firm and final, as they get ready for the last few hours of driving.

Clarke shoots him a look. “I can drive it.”

“You can drive the rover.”

Clarke wrinkles her brow. “Why should I drive the rover?”

“Because you should have been driving the rover this whole time,” Bellamy huffs out, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re one of our only doctors, Clarke. You shouldn’t be driving with the volatile explosives.”

“He’s right,” Roan says, and Bellamy’s head turns so fast that his neck cracks. Clarke also looks surprised, but Roan doesn’t even glance at them as he continues, “A healer shouldn’t be in such a life-threatening position. Especially when that healer is also a leader of her people.”

Clarke opens her mouth once, closes it, and then bursts out with, “You jumped from one moving vehicle to another and you’re the _king_. You have no room to lecture me about safety.”

“Touchy, Princess.” Bellamy’s stomach twists as Roan leaves them to work it out and settles himself in the passenger seat of the rover.

Clarke shoots Bellamy a dirty look. “This is your fault,” she mutters under her breath and turns toward the rover.

He’s gotten what he wanted so he doesn’t try to argue with her. To be fair, she’s right – it is his fault that Roan’s calling her “Princess”. The weight in his stomach every time he hears Roan say it is his own doing.

It just slipped out the other day. He’d called her “Princess” when they left Polis, to remind her that she wasn’t just Wanheda, some mythical Commander of Death, but also their leader, the one who’d helped him keep all of them safe in their early days on earth. Prior to that, the last time he remembers calling her “Princess” was at the dropship, goading her into a decision. Maybe that’s what brought the nickname back to him, the feeling that this mission gave him. It felt like when they were just starting out, finding ways to work together even when they didn’t always agree and just trying to keep their people safe. 

When they finally reach the lab, it doesn’t take them long to unload the hydrazine. Raven’s grinning and explaining her plans so fast that Bellamy can barely keep up. Once they’re done, Roan breaks off to talk to Luna, Jackson pulls Clarke aside, and Bellamy goes to find Miller.

When it’s time for them to meet back up to make the drive back to Arkadia, it’s not hard for Bellamy to figure out what’s being decided among Clarke, Abby, and Raven, who are arguing in low voices and glancing over at him. Raven finally throws up her hands and storms off and Clarke lets out a breath before squaring her shoulders and marching over to him, grabbing his arm and leading him toward the corner of the room.

He sees Abby leaving out of the corner of his eye and hears Clarke saying, “The plan for the trip back has changed.” but that’s overshadowed by the weight settling in his stomach. The same one that he felt when Clarke told him she wasn’t coming inside the gate, when she stayed in Polis, when Octavia stabbed Pike and turned on her heel to leave the throne room.

Bellamy doesn’t try to keep the venom out of his voice when he says, “Let me guess. You’re staying here? Leading back at camp gets hard and you decide to leave again, Wanheda?”

Clarke recoils like he slapped her and the guilt that washes over him is immediate.

“Clarke, I didn’t mean-“

“Yes, you did.” Her voice is strained as she cuts him off, but she offers him a small, sad smile. “You wouldn’t have said it if you didn’t mean it.”

He’s not sure if she remembers that he’s only called her Wanheda once before, when she shocked him by appearing in his room on the Ark and all he wanted was to hurt her as much as she’d hurt him, or if she truly believes that he thinks she’s not strong enough to lead them.

“You’re right,” he says, “But you’re not the only one who pulled that lever and you’re not the only one who wrote the list. I’m responsible for as many deaths as you are, for more than you. I’m the reason we couldn’t stop the culling. I helped massacre the Trikru army.”

He sees the crease in her brow, realizes that she was talking about running away from camp, but he continues on, because he’s already dug himself this far down and he might as well go for broke. “Clarke, you’re no more the Commander of Death than I am.”

She just keeps looking at him, for long enough that he feels his neck start to heat up, so he starts again, “I know you wouldn’t stay here if you didn’t feel like you have to. You’re not running away and- you’ll come back?” It sounds like more of a question than a statement and he sighs. Clarke’s still looking at him and he can’t read her expression, so he’s a little shocked when she’s suddenly throwing herself into his arms.

He staggers a little, arms coming around her waist as Clarke starts talking, voice muffled by his shoulder. “When we used the EMP on Raven, she said it could cause brain damage. She seized the other day and when they checked her out, she showed signs of a stroke. She’s been having headaches, too, and they think that if she keeps working the way she is – it could kill her.” Clarke takes a deep breathe before continuing. “I used the EMP on my mom, too. Jackson says she won’t let him run any tests on her. I can’t leave her, Bellamy. If she dies because I was selfish, because I used the EMP on her-“

“Hey, hey.” Bellamy can feel Clarke trembling, can see how hard it is to hold herself together and he rubs circles into her back. “You weren’t selfish, we needed your mom. You wouldn’t have survived the City of Light and been able to shut it down without her keeping you alive out here.”

Clarke nods, but her grip on him tightens and they stay that way for longer than they probably should. When she finally releases him, she swipes at her eyes. “I’m coming back. And it’s not – we have radios this time and I won’t stay long. I just want to stay long enough to see if my mom’s showing any symptoms.”

“She’ll be okay.” Bellamy says, even though he knows it’s probably not true.

“Don’t mention it to Kane. Just tell him that I’m staying to help here. I’m sure Niylah will stay and help out in medical while I’m gone. I showed Roan enough on the way here that he should be able to drive the cargo truck back.”

Bellamy nods and clears his throat. “Good. I should find Roan and we should head out.”

Her hand shoots out to stop him, grabbing his wrist. “Thank you, Bellamy.” He opens his mouth, read to tell her that it’s no problem, but she shakes her head and keeps going. “For this and for what you said before. I’d rather be a princess than be Wanheda.”

The smile she gives him is small, but genuine and he returns one of his own. “Everything’s going to be fine, Princess.”

**Author's Note:**

> Send me a writing prompt (au or canonverse) over on [tumblr](http://fitnessandfandom.tumblr.com/ask) or just cry abt Bellarke with me.


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